Mater Academy Run Ends In 5A Semifinal Loss

5A Semifinal Photo Gallery: Mater Academy vs. Lincoln

Every once in a while, no matter how good of a team, there comes a time when all the chips stack up against you. After winning the state title in 2025, and rolling through regionals this season, that time came Monday night for Mater Academy.

The Lions played an uncharacteristically sloppy game, committing four errors, while walking five Lincoln batters. In the end, it added up to a 7-4 5A semifinal loss.

“This is baseball,” said Lions Manager Humberto Bencomo. “We made some mistakes today that we hadn’t made all year. Obviously when you get to this stage, every mistake is going to stand out, and today we made too many of them.”

Despite the loss, it wasn’t all bad for Mater. After falling behind 3-0 in the third, the Lions showed their championship pedigree, as they had all year, by tying the game with three runs in the top of the fourth.

After Jonathan Esponda led off with a walk, Bryan Mesa popped out, and Dylan Fernandez hit into a fielder’s choice. With two outs, Bryan Fernandez woke up the Lions crowd by blasting a two-run home run.

A couple Lincoln errors led to the third run of the inning.

The score remained 3-3 into the sixth, when Bryan Mesa ledd off the inning with a home run, giving the Lions a 4-3 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, Leodan Rodriguez, who had gone the distance for the Lions, struck out the first Trojans batter.

Lincoln then strung together three straight walks, followed by three straight singles, and suddenly a 4-3 lead turned into a 7-4 deficit for the Lions.

“That was a tough inning for us,” said Bencomo. “It started out well, but the wheels kind of fell off there. It wasn’t the ideal situation for the outcome we wanted, and again it was out of character for what this team has been all season. But sometimes, you have to give credit to the other team, and they came up with the big hits when they needed them late in the game.”

From there, Mater went down in order in the top of the seventh, and the hopes of a repeat as 5A champs was eliminated.

Despite the loss, Bencomo was upbeat about the way his team performed throughout the season.

“Winning a state championship is hard. If it was easy, everyone would win them. We were able to win one last year, and we fell short this year, but that doesn’t take away from everyrthing this team accomplished. We won 26 games, district, and regional titles. So these guys have nothing to be ashamed of. Today just wasn’t our day.”

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